Mesmerized
by justapple1
Summary: There are so many things about Charlotte that Henry finds mesmerizing. But because he's so enthralled by her, he oftentimes gets himself into embarrassing situations. Sequel to Distraction.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi there! First of all, I would like to give a (very late and) huge 'Thank You!' to everyone who read, liked or reviewed my last story, Distraction. I really, _really_ appreciate it! This is the second part of the series. It consists of two chapters and focuses on Henry's perspective. Hope you'll enjoy!

* * *

It starts with-

Well-

He's pretty sure that it starts with a perfume, which isn't strange at all, seeing as how much Charlotte _loves_ perfumes.

Some might even say that she's slightly obsesses with them.

And Henry, is _definitely_ one of those people.

In all the years that he's known Charlotte, Henry has seen her collect multiple bottles of perfume. She used to line them up on the different shelves and tables within her room, up until the point that her mom bought her a huge wooden box to put them in. The perfumes were really diverse in fragrance: from chestnut, strawberries and daisies, to cherry blossoms and sugar roses. It was almost as if she owned every fragrance known to man.

And out of all of them, Henry had a favorite.

It's one that she's been wearing for a _very_ long time. It's subtle and sweet and it reminds him of spring and flowers, of blue skies and her smile.

He's pretty sure that she's gone through _multiple_ bottles of that one perfume throughout the years. His most vivid recollections and his most treasured memories of her (which are a lot by the way), are always accompanied by that fragrance, to the point that in his head, the scent has become tantamount to _Charlotte_. Sometimes when he smells it, he would find himself turning and looking around, trying to find her, thinking that it's her, only to be disappointed when it turns out to be someone else. That scent to him means Charlotte, and _only_ Charlotte.

And he loves it.

So much so, that he would do anything to get a better whiff of it.

Which is exactly why today's incident, while embarrassing, isn't really that surprising.

To him at least.

It had been a day of virtually no crime and business had also been slow in Junk 'N stuff. And after sitting on the couch all day, banging a hammer (Yes, an actual hammer) on the table because he was _'sooo bored'_, Ray had stood up and loudly announced that they would be spending the day catching up on the new season of 'T_he Walking Orange_', an idea that everyone else had readily agreed with. Because honestly, they had been bored too.

They just didn't find it necessary to showcase that by banging a hammer (seriously, why?) on the table.

After the announcement, Jasper had run upstairs to close Junk 'N Stuff as Charlotte and Henry set the table up with sodas, popcorn, pizza and (of course) worms for Schwoz.

And now, they find themselves settled on the couch, with Schwoz and Ray each on one end (Ray didn't want to hear Schwoz munching on those worms), and Charlotte squeezed in the middle between Jasper and Henry. And the Man Cave is filled with the noises coming from the TV, intermediate yelling (both out of fear and annoyance) and the sound of people munching on food.

Henry has an arm on the back of the couch behind Charlotte. At one point that arm drops down around her shoulders and he finds himself unconsciously tucking her closer to him. By around the fifth episode, he finds himself slumping down and resting his head on her shoulder.

Charlotte doesn't seem to mind.

He doesn't know when he's become conscious of it, but suddenly he's overly aware of the fact that she's wearing _that_ perfume.

His favorite one.

It's such a heady smell, and he really, really likes it and his brain tells him that if he were to turn around and put his face closer to her neck, he would be able to smell it much, much better.

So what does he do?

He _of course_ listens to his stupid brain.

Because it's always helped him in making the best decisions in life, right?

And he doesn't even...consciously think about it. He just…does. His head turns -seemingly without his own input- into her hair, and then he starts moving closer and closer, until his nose bumps into her neck. With his eyes closed, he drags his nose up the column of her throat until it bumps against her earlobe. He then moves back down until he's finally nuzzling her neck, letting out a content groan as he does.

He can smell the perfume _so_ well here.

But he can also smell _her_.

That smell that seems to be coming just from her skin and which is so infinitely _Charlotte_. The scent that is basically the essence of the whole thing, the whole person.

It's enticing. It's heavenly.

It almost leaves him in a daze.

He's pretty sure he _is_ in a daze and he can't get enough of it.

And then, he opens his eyes.

And he sees her neck.

Notices the position he's in.

And that-

That brings him back to the reality of things.

To this situation, with a tense Charlotte, his face against her neck and a cutting silence, safe for the sounds coming from the TV.

No munching.

_What. _

_The heck. _

_Is wrong with me? _

Is all that he can think_. _

Because seriously. _What the heck?!_

A side glance brings Ray and Jasper into his line of vision, both of whom are looking at him, mouths slightly agape, soda and popcorn respectively poised midway towards their mouths.

Obviously they're also thinking the same thing.

_What the heck?!_

And that's all it takes for his face to flush because

_This is so weird! _

And he just…doesn't…know…how to proceed? How to act? What to do?!

He stays in that position for a moment, eyes wide as he tries to think of different ways through which he can try to make this any less awkward of a situation than it currently is.

When he comes up with _nothing_, his brain tells him that, first and foremost, _maybe_ he should _move away from her neck_ and, you know, not stay there as if he's some kind of weirdo.

So he does just that, thinking that this time, his brain might be on to something.

He moves away slowly, his movements halted, as if that's going to make things any better.

As if that's going to undo what he just did.

When he finally pulls away, he decides to act normal. As if that would make them all think that nothing happened. So he just… turns around and continues watching…whichever episode that they're on.

However, the problem is that, even though he's not looking at them, he can _feel_ everyone looking at him.

And it gets to him. It really does. He wants to know, to _see_ what they're thinking.

As if that would make him feel better or less of an idiot.

So he first chances a glance at Schwoz.

Henry finds him looking at him. And grinning.

Suggestively.

He decides to ignore it even though he can feel his face warm up even more.

He then turns to the other side and finds Ray and Jasper still watching him.

Ray's grinning smugly. His gaze tells Henry that he's never going to let him live this down.

Jasper's eyebrows are almost touching his hairline as he smiles at him in amused disbelief. He pops some popcorn into his mouth, chewing slowly, smirking as he keeps looking at Henry like he's the punchline of some really terrible joke.

_Heck. _

Henry decides right then and there, that doesn't even want to look at Charlotte.

But then, Ray decides to speak up.

Cause, of course.

What else could you expect?

"What uh, what was that about, Kid?" comes the serious question, asked with a smile.

Henry turns to look at him.

_Can they stop looking at me like that?_

"What was what?" he answers casually.

Or well, he _tries _to sound casual.

His voice comes out as a squeak.

"You just sniffed Charlotte's neck," Jasper points out.

"So you _are_ dating!" Schwoz yells out gleefully.

"What?! No!" Henry yells, and gosh can he please stop blushing?! "She just- I just-," he lets out a sigh, glances over at Charlotte before continuing. "She smells good, that's all. I-I like that perfume."

And _yeah_, _that's a good answer_, he thinks. _No need to say anything about her own scent, and how heady that makes him feel and how, when he dreams of her-_

"Uh, thanks," Charlotte mumbles.

He's about to retort, when Schwoz pipes up. "Ya know, my sister's perfume also smells good."

"Your sister smells like hay," Ray snaps immediately, unapologetically.

And immediately the two adults in the room start arguing, throwing popcorn and worms at each other while the teenagers remain unbothered.

Henry almost lets out a sigh of relief at the fact that the moment has passed. But then he turns to get a slice of pizza and catches Jasper looking at him, with an expression that seems to say: '_Really dude_?'.

Henry immediately turns back to the TV, trying to focus only on the TV show and not on any judgey facial expressions or the scent that's lingering next to him, seemingly embracing him in its sweet fragrance.

_Well_, he thinks, _at least there's about zero percent chance of this ever happening again_.

Or so he hopes.

* * *

There's something that Henry finds totally adorable about Charlotte's short stature.

Not _something_, but a multitude of things.

He likes watching her when she's trying to reach for things that are up on a higher shelve. Likes hearing the little huffs of frustration every time her fingers only manage to graze whatever she's trying to get to, even if she's already standing on the tip of her toes. He likes it when her expression twists from annoyance, to determination. Or how she shoots him or Jasper an annoyed look when either of them _casually_ saunters over and _casually_ asks her if she needs any help (The question: "You alright there, Char?", is a surefire way of getting a glare from her during those moments). Or her minuscule pout when they're easily able to reach whatever it is that she couldn't reach.

She's probably mentally cursing at them because they get even taller each year, while her own growth seems to be minimal at best.

It's so cute.

But what he loves the most about Charlotte being shorter than him, is the fact that he can stand behind her and rest his head on top of hers.

Which is something that he tends to do _a lot. _

Sometimes, it's simply to annoy her. Oftentimes it's because…well, he likes it. Plain and simple.

It becomes their thing.

Or _his_ thing.

The thing he does when he walks into the Man Cave and finds her sitting at her station.

The thing he does when they're standing in the middle of the room and she's debriefing or updating them.

It basically becomes second nature to him.

And that's the problem: It's second nature.

So he_ doesn't consciously think about it. _

Which is why it's not odd that it brings him (and Charlotte) into another embarrassing situation.

It's during a usual day at school.

They've just finished in Miss Shapen's class, and while Charlotte and Jasper could leave, Henry had to stay behind because Miss Shapen had to ask him for another weird favor (babysit her cats).

When he's finally able to weasel himself out of it (he had to promise to actually babysit the cats, that is), he quickly walks towards the lockers and tries to find his two best-friends so they can walk to the cafeteria together.

He finds Jasper first, loudly arguing with Sydney and Oliver about some new skinny jeans.

He decides to avoid that.

Because the last time that he got in-between one of their arguments, he got hit with an avocado in...a very sensitive area.

So he scans around for his other best-friend.

He finds Charlotte by her locker, talking to some of the other people from LIMP. By now, he knows all of them by name, so he walks over to the group, smiling as Kris, Thomas, T.J. and Maria shoot him a smile and a wave before turning back to whatever they're discussing.

Charlotte's back is towards him and-

He-

He just doesn't _think_.

He walks up behind her, looking at the top of her head, snakes both arms around her waist and pulls her back flush against him, tucking her underneath his chin.

And then, with a small, satisfied smile, he props his head above hers, taking a moment to relish in the feeling of her being so close to him.

And then he looks up.

And he finds that the conversation has died down.

And four set of eyes are looking directly at him.

Or, you know, at _them_.

Him and Charlotte.

Charlotte who's hands have paused in the air, mid gesticulation.

Charlotte who's tensed up and isn't saying anything.

His totally platonic, best-friend Charlotte.

Four set of eyes keep shifting between his hands -which are still wrapped tightly around Charlotte's waist- his face, Charlotte's face, and then the cycle is repeated again.

And suddenly,

_Suddenly_, he's all too aware of _how_ this looks.

Especially since he's done it so casually.

And his arms are around her waist today instead of around her shoulder or at his sides as they usually are. _And _

_Wow. _

_Wow. _

_This must look very intimate. _

_Fudging hell_.

He can _feel_ himself starting to blush and tries to will it away. But it's obviously a losing battle, especially when Kris, speaks up.

"Are you-," she asks, all the while glancing between them, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Are you guys _dating_?" she finally asks when her brief examination didn't yield any results.

Henry feels like a tomato right now.

And because he's embarrassed, he can't even seem to find his tongue to, you know, explain? How this is entirely platonic? No matter what his dopey smile and facial expression from before might have said.

Not that his facial expression would have said anything of course. Cause, you know, he's just happy to see his best-friend. Who, yes, he had seen in class less than 10 minutes ago. But whom he missed. So he had wanted to hug her. In a totally platonic way. Just because he's happy to see her. Not because he has _feelings_ for her or anything.

Cause no.

He doesn't.

So, yeah.

He stays silent and Charlotte doesn't say anything either.

And Kris and Maria raise an eyebrow, shooting each other a look before looking back at them.

And when they look back, their expressions are really…

_Knowing_.

And really smug.

As if the owners of those eyes think they _knew_ something.

And they are smug about _figuring something out_.

Which is _stupid_.

Because there's _nothing to know_. And there's definitely nothing to _figure out_.

And because he's suddenly gotten _uncomfortable_, and because Charlotte hasn't said anything yet, he decides to start making use of his speech abilities again (which had been momentarily rendered useless) to answer the question, and stop this smugness.

"Uhm…no," he answers, ever so eloquently.

A lazy smirk materializes on Kris' face. She glances between them again, and Henry suddenly realizes that he's still attached to his best friends' waist.

He almost,_ almost_ jumps away from her. But how telling would that be?

Not that of course anything should be _telling_. Because, again: there's nothing to tell, nothing to know and nothing to figure out.

This is just a _friend_, hugging another _friend_, in a way that _some people_ might deem intimate, but which is totally, totally _platonic_.

Platonic.

He can't stress that word enough.

They're friends. He's allowed to hug his friends. And he doesn't have to explain a simple _hug_ to _anyone_. Nor does he have to act as if he did something wrong or scandalous.

So he pulls away in deliberate slowness and then stands awkwardly, with both arms at his sides, looking down at the floor.

Like a guilty person.

Still willing his ever-present blush to go away.

He looks at Charlotte, only to find her in the same pose: hands at her sides, looking down at her shoes. When he looks up at the rest of the group, he catches the look that Thomas sends T.J..

It's knowing.

_What is it that these people think they know? _

He feels the dire need to defend his and Charlotte's friendship.

He's also wants his face to stop resembling a lobster.

But then Maria shrugs and says that she'll be heading to the cafeteria and the rest agree. Next thing he knows, him and Char are murmuring their 'goodbye's' and 'see ya's' and within a few seconds, they're left alone.

There's a beat of silence before Henry decides to speak up.

"So," he chuckles nervously as he scratches behind his neck. "That was…weird."

"Yeah," Charlotte mumbles, without taking her eyes away from her shoes.

It's silent for another moment before he speaks up again, "It was just-, I wasn't-, I just- I think we should-"

"Let's get Jasp and head to the cafeteria," Charlotte interrupts.

"Yeah- uh, Yeah. That's-…Yeah."

They awkwardly make their way over to Jasper, who takes the opportunity to get out of the argument that he's still embroiled in. When gets to them, he looks at them in confusion.

"What's wrong with you two? And why are you blushing?" He asks, eyes roaming over Henry's face. "Did you two kiss or something?"

"Shut up," both his best friends answer immediately. Both of them speedily walk towards the cafeteria doors, not once looking at the other.

_Ah. Young love,_ Jasper thinks and then he happily runs after them, yelling for them to wait up.

* * *

Her smile is beautiful.

It's always blinding, warm, inviting and full of affection.

He loves seeing her eyes light up and her nose scrunch up when she's smiling.

It makes him breathless and makes his heart warm up.

Actually, his whole being warms up when he sees her smile.

He likes seeing it on her, not only because it makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but also because that's a surefire way for him to know whether she's happy.

Because honestly, sometimes he gets a little concerned about her.

She does really well in school, is a member of multiple extracurricular clubs, partakes in community service and has her gig in Man Cave.

And that's _a lot_.

Especially considering the fact that Ray, Jasper, Schwoz and him aren't always the easiest people to deal with.

Plus they work during odd hours. _No one_ can account for a cyber-crime at 3 AM on a Tuesday, not even someone as organized as Charlotte.

She puts a lot of pressure on herself to perform well in everything that she does. And although he knows that she can do anything that she sets her mind on to do, he also wants to make sure that she's never so stressed, to the point that she doesn't feel happy or feels like she can't enjoy herself.

Because to him, Charlotte deserves a world of happiness.

So he tries to make sure that she's happy, tries to make her smile as much as he can. He compliments her (because she deserves it), buys snacks and those expensive but qualitatively superior hair bonnets for her.

And every time he sees her smile, it melts away all of those worries, and he feels at peace with the knowledge that she's happy and that the universe is giving her the happiness that she deserves.

* * *

One day, Ray had randomly gone from being a man-child to an overprotective-adult and then reverting back so fast, that it almost gave everyone within the Man Cave whiplash.

In true Ray fashion, he had come out of his room and abruptly (and loudly) declared that Charlotte and Jasper will start partaking in intense training sessions in order to survive in the case that their cover was blown and they got kidnapped by a villain (again).

And even through his passive aggressive remarks and jokes, everyone could see that he was really concerned about their safety.

Both Charlotte and Jasper had agreed almost immediately, because, well, their cover being blown has happened before. More than once actually. Heck, Gwen still knows who they are and she can expose them to literally _anyone_ at any given moment. So they obviously supported the idea of being able to protect themselves if the situation were to ever arise again, which it probably will. Plus, Charlotte had really liked combat training during that whole Bysh thing.

So a training schedule was created, which included multiple activities, ranging from cardio and hand-to-hand combat, to target practice and that ridiculous (or ridiculously awesome) laser tag exercise game that he and Ray oftentimes do.

They started it that same week. And out of all the things that Henry had expected to come out of the training (new sparring partners, hilarious moments, his best friends being purely and deliriously exhausted like he and Ray used to feel), being completely and wholly enthralled by Charlotte when she's training, was not one of them.

But that's what happened.

Especially during hand to hand combat.

There's something especially wonderful about seeing Charlotte fighting.

In general, she has a way of moving, a way of walking, that is very fluid, very beautiful and very enticing.

Henry doesn't understand how that's a thing that someone would pay attention to, but he knows that he does, so it _must_ be a thing.

The motion of her arms, the little sway of her hips, the…uhm…movement of her-

Uh, yeah.

He can't be the only one that finds such simple movements mesmerizing. He just can't.

It's so soft and enthralling.

But when she's fighting, it's entirely different.

Her movements are calculated and powerful.

There's something great about seeing her successfully take down someone that's basically three times her size. He always, _always_, finds himself turning away from the TV, the computer screens, his phone or a conversation to watch her fight.

Her quick footwork, her deliberate and powerful movements, the way her loose fitted tops flit around her, exposing a sliver of her stomach to his gaze, and how those leggings hug her lower body so well.

It's all very distracting.

And he finds out just how distracting it can be on the day that he has to fight against her.

He's been sitting in the chair in front of the monitors for the last half an hour, watching her and Ray fight. He himself had just finished his usual cardio training and was taking a well-deserved break. He's just about to start with the second part of his regimen, when Ray calls him over and suggests that he fight against Charlotte because his hyper motility might be a great thing for her to go up against.

Henry easily assents, and he walks over to the mats and faces her.

He's smiling and thinking about how cute she looks in her clothes when Ray tells them to get into a fighting position. He bents his knees, holds his arms in front of himself and looks at her.

And it's the look in her eyes when she stares back that gets him.

All of his breath leaves his body in a whoosh.

He can't think, his brain's gone dumb.

His mouth feels dry as he looks into her eyes. He can't look away, but he's not sure that he wants to either.

Her look is calculating, determined. Pure fire is reigning within the depths of them.

Her lips tilt up on one side in a smirk that he really shouldn't find that attractive, but which he can't help but fall into.

He feels like a prey, ensnared in the gaze of a predator, without any choice but to wait for it to pounce upon him.

He really can't say that he hates it.

Just the though-

_Is it hot in here or is it just-_

Ray only has to say "go" one time and almost immediately, Charlotte moves.

But _he's_ still standing there.

Thinking about the stray curls that have fallen out of her messy bun and which are now lying against her forehead. And about how good she looks in those clothes and that look and those lips and how they would feel upon his.

And suddenly she's against him, pushing against his shoulder and his feet are not under him anymore, having been swept away by one of her own. And in what feels like only a few seconds, he finds himself lying on his back on the floor, looking up at the ceiling, experiencing a bout of vertigo.

Hyper-motility apparently doesn't work when someone's distracted.

Huh.

After a moment, Charlotte appears in his line of vision.

And that smirk.

_That smirk_ is still on her face and he almost groans.

Because

Wow.

Uhm.

That look is _breathtaking_.

And those moves were also breathtaking.

His heart is thumping like crazy and he feels _things _and he can't-

He doesn't-

_How do you deal with these kind of thoughts and feelings?! _

Thankfully, Ray comes to his rescue, telling Charlotte how well she did and holding out a hand for Henry to take.

"You okay, Kid?" he asks when Henry is back on his feet, steadying him as he sways a bit.

Henry can only nod.

"You know, if you don't pay attention, you're always going to end up on your back," Ray says teasingly.

"Who says I don't like being on my back?"

It comes out before he can stop himself.

And no.

No.

He doesn't have to _think_ about the connotations of that sentence. About what he _meant_ to say when he strung those words together. Because he already _knows_. He knows _exactly_ what he meant with that sentence.

And he has a lot of questions about himself now.

(Does he want someone else to take control? Is it a powerful women (or one particular woman) thing? Does he have a concussion? What is impulse control and how do you get one of those?)

He's now faced with two different types of facial expressions.

Ray's _'eyebrows basically hitting the ceiling, eyes wide and smiling incredulously'_ look. And Charlotte's wide eyed 'what?' look.

And he screwed himself over by saying what he had just said. Because it creates, uhm, mental images. Which makes his eyes widen as they flit through his head.

_Yups, he wants someone to be in control. That's the fair conclusion. _

And then Ray

Ray who seems to know him so well to the extent that it seems as if he can read his mind (or because he's just _that_ type of person), starts laughing.

Really loudly.

And Charlotte looks from Henry to Ray, asking what the joke was.

Ray takes one look at her and then turns back to Henry and doubles over laughing while Henry walks away, murmuring something about water as he tries to avoid answering Charlotte.

He gets away from her, but that night, she follows him into his dreams.

A dream where she takes control and kisses him.

* * *

She has an impeccable sense of style.

In all honesty, he doesn't think that she could look bad in _anything_. She has a way of knowing what to wear and how to combine and she's so unapologetic about the things that she wears and what her style is.

And _gosh she looks good in her clothes_.

From her sneakers and Doc Martens, her skinny and wide-legged jeans, her colorful blouses, her T-shirts, hoodies and jean jackets.

They are all so _her_ and she looks amazing each and every time he sees her.

But her clothing, like so many aspects of her can be enthralling and distracting.

But it's not her clothes that distracts him when he walks into school that morning.

He walks in as he always does: Coolly. He greets some people by the door and smiles as he sees some others. He's feeling half-tired but also satisfied because last night they stopped some heinous crime from taking place in Swellview again.

Sure, he had to wake up at 3 in the morning. Sure, he had to sneak out through his window and fell out of the three. And sure, he had ended up smelling like fish because the villains had_ obviously_ decided to have a fight in a warehouse at the Swellview docks where thousands of fish hung around on hooks.

Fun.

But he's satisfied.

And he has a big to-go tumbler of coffee to help him get through the day, so he'll be fine.

He walks directly towards his locker, eyes glued onto his screen as he watches the morning news (most of which he already knows: villains that Captain Man and Kid Danger had stopped the previous night and the Vice Mayor Willard's next budget cuts which will be rolling out soon).

He glances up when he nears his locker, already expecting to find Char there waiting for him (always an early bird). He sees her, starts to smile tiredly, ready to murmur a good morning, when he finally notices what she's wearing.

That's about all the distraction that he needed for him to forget how to walk. One foot suddenly hooks into the other, and he stumbles forward towards the lockers, only managing to catch himself at the last moment before he smashes his face into them.

He doesn't even have time to consider how clumsy that looked. He straightens up, walks towards her and points at her attire, "Is that my hoodie?" he blurts out.

He doesn't even need an answer. He _knows_ that it's his. It's in his colors. Red and blue. And it looks big on her.

It also looks really good on her.

"Good morning to you too, Hen. How are you? Are you doing alright?" Charlotte says playfully with a smile and an eye-roll.

"Yeah, yeah. Good morning," he answers back with a shooing motion. "Is that my hoodie?" he asks again.

"Yeah. You, uhm- you left it at my house that day that we had our study sesh. And today I saw it and it went so good with the jeans and the boots and- You don't mind do you?" she finishes shyly, biting her lips and looking up at him through her eyelashes.

His brain short-circuits when she looks at him like that. It's enough to render him speechless and he can only nod at her.

"Yeah," he finally says after a few seconds more, voice sounding hoarse. He clears his throat as he takes her in.

The black boots and skinny jeans really do go well with the red of the hoodie. Her skin looks amazing in the color (but truthfully, when does her skin ever not look great? It's always beautiful).

Her hair is down today, framing her face and partially covering her big earrings.

She looks stunning.

As a whole, but most importantly, in his hoodie.

"You can keep it if you want," he adds, voice coming out just above a whisper.

She looks up, and he doesn't know what she sees on his face, but she stares back at him, biting her lip-gloss stained lips as she does.

He's looking at her probably in the way a particularly hungry animal might look at its prey (Oh how the tables have turned). He's drinking her in, trying to imprint the memory of her in his hoodie onto his brain so it can last forever.

"You don't mind?"

He wants to tell her that no, how could he mind when she looks better than him in it? How could he mind when all he can think about at the moment is how good she would look in _any_ one of his other clothes.

He decides to just nod.

Her answer is a big, shining smile, and it feels as if he's an iceberg melting in its heat.

"Thanks, Hen."

Jasper arrives at that moment and comes to stand next to him. He shoots one look at Charlotte's hoodie and the same question is asked again. Charlotte laughs, telling him to ask Henry because she has to go talk to a teacher about one of her club activities.

As she walks away, Henry watches her. He takes in how the clothes fit, how she practically glides through the hallway, her hips swaying slightly. He jumps when a hand slaps him on the shoulder.

"You've got it bad, Hen." Jasper says.

He can't even find it within himself to deny it.

The look that Jasper shoots him tells him that he also knows that.

* * *

Charlotte's laugh is, in one word, mesmerizing.

He loves the melodic sound of it. How it bubbles out of her and tinkles within the confines of a room.

How it resonates within him.

How it could start with an adorable giggle, before developing into a full out laugh, boiling over and making her gasp for breath.

He likes how she tries to hold on to the person nearest to her when she's laughing too much and can't hold herself upright anymore.

How sometimes she actually does fall onto the floor laughing, all the while holding her stomach.

How she tries to rear her laughter back when it's been going on for a long time, hiccuping and gasping when it finally dies down, and wiping away her tears of joy when she's letting out the residual giggles.

It's a beautiful sound.

And he tries as much as possible to hear it.

Not that it's difficult these days, considering all mishaps and crazy antics taking place within the Man Cave.

But he likes it even more when _he's_ the cause of her laugh.

So he cracks the stupidest jokes or does something entirely stupid sometimes, simply to hear it.

And how she looks at him afterwards, after having laughed her butt off, all twinkling eyes and shining smile.

That's his favorite expression in the world.

He really loves seeing her happy.

* * *

At one point, him staring becomes a thing. And by now he knows that anything that relates to Charlotte that he can call a _thing_, is going to cause him _some_ embarrassment or it'll make him feel some type of way.

But even as he tells himself that, he finds himself looking at her more and more.

Right now, for instance.

He's supposed to be listening to Ray's story about that one time he went to Hawaii. But he's looking at her, trying to catalogue every movement, every smile, every facial expression and basking into the sound of laugh. He watches as she talks to Jasper and smiles at how she swats Schwoz's hands away from her quesadillas.

So cute.

"Uh, Kid?"

Henry's eyes fly towards Ray, who he finds is, again, smirking.

_How shocking. _

"My eyes are up here," Ray says playfully.

Henry looks down in embarrassment, before looking back up at him again. "So we were at you losing your trunks in the ocean, and…?"

"No. We were at '_so cute',_" Ray says, adding the quotation marks with his fingers.

Henry blanches.

_I said that out loud?!_

Ray shoots him a look, before deciding to grant him some reprieve for once and resumes with his story. But every time that his eyes stray back to Charlotte and then move back to Ray again, he finds Ray smiling, quietly judging him.

He chooses to ignore it.

Like he does with every other facial expression which is directed at him nowadays.

* * *

Her hands are small, dainty.

'Cute' is the word that he would use (but he'll never tell her that).

There are a lot of moments in which he takes one of her hands in his, turning it around, laying it against one of his own to compare the size and marveling at the contrast of their skin against one another.

He finds a great deal fascination in it.

He also just likes feeling her hands in his.

It usually dissolves in him bringing her hand in both of his in order to play with her fingers. And then, he'll grasp it in one of his, interlinking their fingers together, before focusing to whatever is happening around him.

Charlotte doesn't seem to mind when he does that.

And neither she nor Henry see the look that Jasper sends them when he catches them in the act, smiling and shaking his head at the two idiots that are his best friends.

* * *

She asks him one day whether she can have one of his bubbles because she wants to see how she looks in the Kid Danger uniform now that they're older.

Henry doesn't find anything wrong with that.

And also, he can't seem to say no to her when she looks at him all enthusiastic and whatnot.

Ray doesn't care.

Jasper also wants to see.

And Schwoz is too focused on his fajitas to care.

So Henry gives Charlotte the tube and she takes a gum out, pops it into her mouth, chews than blows a bubble.

After the blinding light is gone, they all stare as she looks down and starts jumping up and down, squealing and clapping her hands when she sees herself in the costume.

Then she turns to look at him and shoots him a brilliant smile. "How do I look?" she asks, before twirling around.

Henry opens his mouth to answer, only to close it back in order to swallow.

He tries to answer again, he really does. But it's like his brain is against that idea.

And his mouth is now opening and closing like a fish, each attempt at speech failing miserably each time he opens his mouth.

Because how can he even answer that question?

All that he can focused on is how bad-ass she looks.

How the masks and silver make-up makes her eyes pop.

And does the upper part of his uniform stick to _him_ like that?

Is it really that tight?

He doesn't think so.

Does it have to define every muscle and every curve and-

He feels flustered.

His gaze flits over her before he looks back and meets her expectant gaze.

He's been quiet for way longer than is deemed appropriate when asked a question.

_Just say it looks nice you idiot. _

_He opens his mouth, _"Uuuuuuuhhh," is all comes out.

His brain hates him.

His brain fudging hates him.

Ray, who's on the couch behind Charlotte, lets his head fall onto the table as he starts laughing noiselessly, hand periodically slapping on the table and sniffling as he tries not to make any noise.

Jasper is slumped onto his back on the couch, also laughing quietly, holding onto his stomach, hand in front of his mouth in order to hold in the sounds.

Schwoz is staring at a fajita.

Henry -for some reason- decides that the best thing to do is to run away. He jumps off of the chair, looking at his watch. "Hey, would you look at that? I have a- a- An appointment!" he yells out, laughing maniacally afterwards.

_I'm losing it. Definitely losing it. _

He stalks backwards towards the tube.

"Where are you going, Kid? You didn't tell me that you have an appointment," Ray says as he stands up and walks (stumbles) away from the couch.

Henry knows, _knows_ that Ray is doing this on purpose.

"Hen, you need to take the-" Charlotte starts to say, pointing at the tube of gumballs.

Henry for once, doesn't care about the gum.

"No, I-", he stumbles over his words, _trying_ not to look suspicious or stupid. By the look on Ray's face, he can tell that he's failing miserably.

"I-, I have something urgent that I have to do."

"What do you have to do that's so urgent?" Jasper asks. Henry can't see him because he's still slumped on the couch, apparently not having enough strength to sit up because he's been laughing so much.

"I-"

"You have a colonoscopy too?" Schwoz asks, not once taking his eyes off of the third (?) fajita that he's making.

"I- What? No!"

Henry just wants to leave.

Schwoz groans. "I have one because-"

"Schwoz, dude, I don't- I'm just-" Henry motions to the tubes, as if that will explain everything that his unfinished sentence didn't. He backs away quickly towards his tube. Ray gets to the control panel and pushes a button.

Henry knows that he can't use the tubes now. He makes a b-line to the elevator, pushes (punches) the 'up' button and waits impatiently for it to come down.

Schwoz continues out of nowhere. "It's no shame. I mean it's-"

_Is he doing this on purpose?_

"Schwoz!" Henry yells again. "Dude, it's not a-" he presses the button repeatedly and violently. When he realizes that he's acting suspicious, he turns around, eyes flying between the occupants of the Man Cave as he laughs uncomfortably, almost evilly.

"I hate this elevator," he says, grinning uncomfortably.

Finally the door opens. He walks in quickly, punches the button repeatedly again, stops and looks outside to see every one of them looking like he's crazy person.

Well, Ray is actually bent over the console, laughing. He's really enjoying this.

Henry shoots a calm smile (which probably looks pretty crazed) before resuming to press the button as he looks at them. "I'm just gonna-" he points up, again, as if that explains everything.

And then finally, the doors close.

When the elevator flies up, he lets himself be squashed down onto the floor by the momentum, groaning loudly.

He doesn't know what just happened, only that he just made himself look like an idiot.

He won't live this down.

Ray won't let him live it down.

Jasper won't let him live this down.

Charlotte probably thinks he's an idiot.

He groans loudly again, banging his head on the floor in helpless frustration.

_Why did I say 'uuuuuuuhhh'?! Who even does that?!_

Sometimes, his life really resembles that of those characters in Charlotte's favorite bad TV shows.

He really needs to take control of his life.

* * *

She's smart.

Like, _really_ smart. And creative. And adamant about learning something new whenever she can.

It's one of those things that he's always admired about his best-friend.

She always works hard to get good grades and tries as much as possible to motivate Jasper and him to do the same. She's helped them study since they were little kids, always coming up with new and interesting ideas to make learning fun for them (such as using actual organs when they're studying for their biology test), in order to 'achieve an optimum level of information retention' (her words, not his).

She does so much outside of the usual high school curricular. She's a member of different clubs at Swellview High, she creates gizmos at the side, and designs clothes and costumes during her pastime.

He likes seeing her at work.

Likes her little frown when she's thinking, how she twirls her pen around as she listens to an explanation, how she bites her lip or huffs when she's trying to figure something out, and how her eyes light up when she finally does.

He also likes how intense her stare is when she's listening to a lecture, how self-assured she is when she answers a question in class and how excited she gets when one of her creations work in the way that she had hoped that it would.

But what he really loves the most, is watching Charlotte when she's participating in the annual Swellview High School debate. Or any debate at that.

Debate club has been a huge part of Charlotte's life for the last few years, and thus, it was also an important aspect of both his and Jasper's lives. When she had debates either at school or somewhere else, they would always try to go and support her (even though sometimes Henry finds himself running out of the room because his watch starts beeping). A lot of the time they're accompanied by her mom, sitting and smiling proudly as she watches her daughter. Sometimes Schwoz and Ray join them, and other times, it's just the two of them.

It doesn't matter how many of them came to support her, Charlotte always seems happy when she sees any one of them.

His heart always skips a beat when she smiles over at them whenever she spots them within the crowd.

If that was all it took to see her smile like that, he would go to a thousand debates in a heartbeat.

Not that he needs convincing to do that.

Because he doesn't.

He likes being there.

Because Charlotte during a debates is just

Amazing.

He finds it captivating when she's speaking up on stage. She looks poised, voice clear, self-assured, eyes unwavering as she looks at the audience and her competitors. And finally, looking bad-ass in her pantsuits or her pencil skirts and colorful blouses.

There's something about her being so classy, well-versed, convincing, in-control (_there it is again_), with so much emotion in her voice and all-around _powerful _that is just so

So,

"Gosh, her confidence is so sexy," a guy behind them whispers as Charlotte finishes her bit.

Jasper snickers.

One of the guy's friends immediately shushes him, adding a "Jeez, Marco. A bit of self-control would be nice, you dolt" for good measure.

"Look at her, dudes! The emotion, the passion, the power. I can't help it if- "

There's a 'whack', followed by an 'ow' and more whispering before Marco drawls out a whiny "fine" and everything quiets down.

And although Henry feels protective and is just about ready to turn around and also whack the guy on the head for saying something like that about his best-friend, he can't lie and say that that's not the exact word that he would've used.

Because

Yeah.

_Yeah_.

It is.

Sexy, that is.

So he decides not to turn around and hit a random guy for speaking the truth, and instead keeps his eyes on her. And he's one of the first to jump up and clap when she is given the prize for best speaker and he cheers so loudly when she receives her 'overall best debater' trophy that she shoots him a smile, her eyes damp with emotion.

He loves seeing her out there, succeeding in anything that she does, being persistent and dedicated.

He can't help but be in awe of her.

And he's sure that's never going to change.

* * *

Her hair is, in one word, _amazing_.

He loves looking at it, likes playing with the ones at the nape of her neck and likes watching her as she twirls a strand around one of her fingers in class.

He loves it when it's in an up-do, when it's down, in braids, or in Bantu knots. In any style really, because just as with her clothing, he doesn't think that Charlotte could look bad in any hairstyle.

But what he loves the most about her hair is the fact that some of the deepest and chillest conversations that they've ever had, took place when he'd been helping her style it.

It usually happens during a weekend when crime is low and he's allowed to leave Junk N' Stuff early. He would go over to her house, talk to her mom (who, just like her daughter, is amazing), before moving towards Charlotte's' room. There, he would situate himself on her bed and she would sit on the floor in between his legs.

From then on, they would rant about anything that has been bothering them and just talk about anything and everything as he helps her twist her hair. He parts and twists tiny sections of it while she talks, his fingers moving with an expertise and nimbleness of someone who's been doing it for years (which is true because both he and Jasper have been doing this for years).

Those moments to him are an explosion of feelings and stimuli. From the texture of her hair between his fingers, to the smell of the hair products, her head against his thigh when she lays it down so he can reach the sides better, and the soft melodic lull of her voice as she talks to him.

It's comfortable. And it usually gives him a feeling of peace. A feeling which he's rarely granted with considering how chaotic his life can be.

So each and every one of those occasions become some of the moments that he knows that he'll appreciate and treasure for the rest of his life.

* * *

He has a thing for her lips.

There, he admits it.

He has a thing…for her lips.

And how could he not when he's daily presented with them. How could he not take notice of how plump they are, or how sexy it looks when one of the corners tilt up into a smirks or how they shine when she wears one of those glosses

_Gosh. _

There's no way in hell that he wouldn't take notice. He could stare at them all day when she's talking, his mind short circuits when she shyly bites the lower portion of them or when she licks them.

He's so glad that he has a good amount control over himself, otherwise he doesn't know (he knows) what he would've done because of those lips.

And then one week, his brain basically mocks him, saying: "self-control? Who is she?".

It's a Saturday, and he's sitting in the chair in front of the big screens, throwing a ball up as high as he can and catching it.

Obviously, he's bored.

Jasper is watching re-runs of old _dog judge_ episodes on the couch, but Henry can see his eyes fluttering close every couple of minutes.

He doesn't even bother asking who's helping the clients out in Junk N' Stuff.

The elevator suddenly dings and he looks up, ready to grunt out a greeting to Charlotte when she walks in.

He opens his mouth to speak but within a second, all the words die on his lips.

Again.

He stares.

At her lips.

She's wearing a bold red lipstick.

And it's _shiny_.

And it attracts his gaze like a magnet.

He vaguely recalls that she told him that her older cousin had send her a box full of make-up. And he, in pure Henry fashion, had just said "oh, cool", to which she had rolled her eyes and continued the conversation with Jasper, who had been more enthusiastic about it.

Really, it's his own fault. He really should've seen this coming.

He doesn't know how a color could make such a difference though.

_It's just a color. _

Some tint on the lips, that happens to be glossy and attracting his eyes to the bow-like shape of them and has him thinking about whether it would transfer if he were to-

He mentally curses.

It takes everything within him to stop himself from standing up, walking over there and kissing her senseless.

He's really considering it.

Considering putting an arm around her waist and pulling her closer to him.

And about leaning down and biting her lower lip, teasing her before he moves in closer and closer and then-

He groans.

_Fuuudge_.

In an effort to calm himself, he closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath. He feels, dazed, confused, his heart is thumping like crazy. He's having all types of reactions to this.

And he really needs to get himself under control.

When he opens his eyes again after deeming himself sane enough to do so, he finds her looking directly at him.

There's a look in her eyes that he can't identify. It's dark and…something.

They stare at each other for what seems like ages. Everything falls away and the only thing- _the only one_\- he can see, is her. The air between them is wracked with so much tension that he swears he can hear the electricity crackle. And when her teeth catch her lower lip, biting it in a way that he's been fantasizing about just then, he's pretty sure that he's spontaneously combust. He's just about snapped. And he's so ready to follow those instincts that are telling him to kiss her senseless.

And then Ray walks in.

"Get a room you two!" he yells out playfully as he heads over to the auto-snacks machine.

Or it sounded playful. The look he sends Henry though, makes him think that Ray knows exactly what he's been thinking about, and exactly how much this whole incident is affecting him.

Henry looks away from him only to catch the gaze of Jasper sitting casually on the couch, lazily eating from a bowl of popcorn, wide-awake and giving him the same look.

He turns back to the computer.

He tries to concentrate.

And he's also considering breaking into her house one of these days, finding that lipstick and destroying it.

For his own sanity.

But that's stupid.

Because she would probably just buy a new one.

And even though it costs him his sanity, he really, really loves that color on her.

* * *

Another thing that he likes about her is how expressive her eyes are.

When she's mad, it's like you can see the fire within them, even when she narrows them. People quiver under that stare, and he can't blame them.

When she's excited, they twinkle brightly, and hey dance in merriment and are brimming with joy when she's happy.

And when she's proud, they turn tender and warm. He feels as if looking at her when she's proud is going to make his heart burst. It makes him feel shy, almost embarrassed for some reason.

When she's sad, they dampen and become dull. And that's the expression that he hates the most. He hates it when she's sad. Not because she's not allowed to be and definitely not because it makes him uncomfortable or something equally as inane.

No, if she were to start crying in front of him right now, he would be right there for her. He would make sure that she's okay, would be her shoulder to cry on and her listening ear.

The thing is though, he can't stand the idea of her ever being in pain, either physically or emotionally. He just… doesn't like the idea of her suffering. Fear is also one of those emotions that he would never like to see in her eyes for the same reason.

But because his job tends to be dangerous, he sometimes gets to see both of those emotions swimming in her eyes, all in one go.

When he's hurt and he comes back delirious and in bad shape, hers is the face that he remembers when he wakes up again after having blacked out. The fear in her eyes, the tears welling up, the trembling lips and the soft whisper of "please be okay".

It makes him determined to train harder, because he never ever wants to be the one to put that expression on her face again.

* * *

She sometimes runs her hand through his hair unconsciously.

When he's sitting next to her in the Man Cave, when he's lying down on his own couch in his room or in his living room when they're studying. At one point, her hand is bound to fall onto his head and she would weave her fingers through his hair, tugging the strands and caressing his head.

Sometimes she does this when he's had a particularly stressful and exhausting day, and it always manages to make him feel mellow and calm.

He loves it.

So much so that when Jasper sends him a picture that he'd taken of them once when Charlotte had been doing just that, he prints it out and only stops himself at the last moment from framing it and putting it up in his room.

She might find that weird.

* * *

He likes being around her.

He especially likes taking any chance he can get to touch her.

He barely ever goes a day without making some type of physical contact with her; brushing his shoulder against hers, hugging her, laying his head atop of hers (but he avoids doing that at school now), and grabbing her hand.

He drops kisses on her head or on her forehead and loves standing closer to her than is strictly necessary.

It's his way of satisfying his growing need to be close to her and also a way of showing affection.

It's around this time that he starts to notice the thought that's been festering in his head for (what he's pretty sure has been) a while, but which he had ignored all of this time.

The thought of wanting her there with him forever.

It's a scary thought because he knows what it implies. And he knows that he's known for a long, long time already.

But he's still not ready to admit it yet. Not even to himself.

* * *

One Christmas morning, Charlotte comes over to the Hart house for the annual holiday get together. She's also there to give the family their presents and to steal some of Henry's trademark (not really) red velvet cookies with white chocolate chip and sprinkles inside.

When she walks in, Henry turns and greets her, yelling over the noise of Christmas music, his mom's electric mixer and Piper yelling at their dad that the lights around the banister are white and not multicolored like they're supposed to be.

She looks beautiful.

As is the case each year during their holiday party, their clothes are coordinated with one another, her green dress and black heels complimenting his green shirt and black pants. It also compliments her brown skin wonderfully.

He sees her put the presents on the table and then immediately walk over to the box of Christmas decor that's situated next to the Christmas tree.

For years now, she's a been the one who's been in charge of decorating the Hart's Christmas tree. This is probably because she found it barbaric how they would just put two same colored balls next to one another before she came along. And most importantly, because she knows that his family tends to be (wonderfully) chaotic sometimes, and that they would always leave the act of decorating the tree up until the very last minute.

As in, right before they had to eat their holiday feast.

So, she's taken over that task.

Henry's pretty sure that it's not (only) because of his family's chaotic tendencies that the tree stays bare up until Christmas day. It probably also has to do with the fact that his mom knows that Charlotte likes hanging up the decorations and has grown attached to that tradition. Plus, his mom is also a sucker for seeing people smile.

In no time, Charlotte has everything set up on the floor and starts decorating the three. Jasper walks in soon after, and the noise basically multiplies by ten when him and Piper start arguing with one another (okay, Piper starts arguing with him).

When the last batch of cookies are in the oven (Henry having made some for Charlotte's mom who'll be coming back from a business trip tomorrow), Henry walks over to the tree and sits down in order to help Charlotte decorate. Together they hang up the red and gold balls in the final bare sections of the tree. When it's done, they put on the star, the light garlands, spray and throw some magic snow in and around the tree and then finally turn the light on.

It looks _wonderfu_l.

Magical even.

This is what he loves the most about the holidays. The warm feeling that he gets from the soft music playing in the background, the lights of the tree, the smell of cookies, ham, cinnamon and pine, and the feeling of _family_. He would give anything to feel like this throughout the whole year.

The inhabitants of the room _'oeh'_ and _'aah'_ at the tree for a moment, before resuming with their tasks. Charlotte decides to go and get a cookie, and in the time that she's gone, he manages to change the positions of one of the balls. It doesn't even surprise him when she immediately notices it when she gets back.

"Why are there two gold balls next to one another?" she says as she pops the rest of her cookie into her mouth.

Henry grins as he turns to look at her. She's smiling too, and also glaring playfully at him as she chews.

"This isn't the 1950's, Char," he quips. "It's perfectly okay for two same colored balls to be next to one another."

He squats down to look at the two balls which are situated smack dab in the middle of the last row, nodding at his handiwork. He chuckles when he hears the huff of frustration that Charlotte lets out before sitting down herself and reaching over him to switch the position of the ball.

Henry in consequence, gets a whiff of her perfume. It's a different one, definitely new. It smells earthy and woodsy, like wood, pine and spice. He inhales surreptitiously in order to get a better smell of it.

He's pretty sure that he's found his second favorite scent on her.

Charlotte sighs and sends him a small smile. "It's gold, than red than gold than red! You know this because I tell you that- "

She's interrupted by a spray of magic snow that covers one of her arms.

She looks at him and then down at her arm, moves her gaze to the bottle in his hand and then she shoots him an incredulous look.

"Did you just-"

He starts laughing before she can finish her sentence. The look on her face is just _so hilarious_. He's laughing so hard that he doesn't notice the look on her face.

"Someone had to stop your tirade about old-fashioned- oomph!"

This time he's the one who's interrupted by a handful of fake snow which is thrown right into his face.

He splutters.

Then looks at her.

A beat goes by and then-

They both jump up seemingly at the same time, him with a can and Charlotte with a bucket of magic snow. He sprays at her, following her along the room when she runs away.

He thinks he's just about to get her when

"What the butt?!"

He ends up spraying Piper.

She sputters and glares.

"Piper, it's not-"

Piper turns to Charlotte, who's already holding out the plastic container to her, smiling evilly at Henry.

"Wait! Piper!" Henry yells, running for cover near the banister when Piper throws her little snowball.

It fall right into their dad's coffee mug.

There's a moment of silence.

And then they all double over laughing.

"Oh, that's how it's going to be, huh?" his dad says, and he walks towards the box, taking out another can.

"Fake snow fight!" Jasper yells at the top of his lungs, and he runs towards the box too, followed closely by Kris Hart.

It ends up being that kind of chaotic nonsense that his family usually deals with.

Spraying, throwing and laughing as they run around the living room and the kitchen.

It gets even more hilarious when Ray and Schwoz (who later introduces himself as a rented Elf to the Hart family) walk through the door and Ray immediately receives a spray of fake snow in the face, midway through his greeting, courtesy of Jasper, who can't stop laughing after that.

When the fight's over, multiple cans and a bucket of snow have been used up. The room is full of it and Piper is yelling about how she can't beat Jenna Tetrazzini's family picture now, and then she starts laughing loudly.

Henry looks down, grinning at Charlotte who is also still laughing at the mess and chaos which they've created. Her hair is full of little white bits, just as his probably also is. She's holding onto him as she laughs, tears sporadically rolling down her cheeks.

He's so focused on the sound of her laugh, the pure happiness on her face and the twinkling eyes full of merriment, that he doesn't notice his mom taking a picture of them.

Or how she shows his dad and the both of them smile at one another.

Or how Piper rolls her eyes, and hides a tiny smile by eating one of the cookies.

Or how Jasper takes out his phone, also taking a picture, raising both his eyebrows at Ray, who shoots the same look back.

Or how Schwoz is eating a lot of the cookies.

All he's focused on at that moment, is her.

But two days later, his mother presents him with one of the best presents that he's ever received.

It's the picture of him and Charlotte, which his mom had developed and framed for him. It depicts them standing next to each other, laughing and surrounded by a mess of fake snow. Charlotte has one arm laced through one of his as she tries to keep herself upright. Henry's looking down at her, slightly turned as he tucks a curl behind one of her ears. And the lights of the Christmas three are twinkling brightly behind them.

He can feel everything that he had felt at that moment as he looks at the picture, can smell the cookies, feel the warmth and smell her perfume.

He can also feel the emotions that he had felt during that moment well up inside of him again.

If back then he didn't know or didn't want to admit that he had feelings for her, now it would be difficult to not acknowledge his those feelings, especially in the face of such an obvious piece of evidence.

He likes her.

Like-likes her.

Romantically.

And he's okay with it.

More than okay actually.

He just…doesn't know what to do with this revelation though.

_Tbc._

* * *

A/N: And that's the end of chapter one. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hello there! This is the second and final chapter of this series. Again, hope you'll enjoy!

* * *

If Henry had thought that admitting and accepting his feelings for her was going to make things better, he had been sorely mistaken.

It's as if the amount of times that he finds himself staring at Charlotte, doubles after he's admitted his feelings to himself.

He finds himself unconsciously looking at her, as if he has no control over his body. He can't go a day without wanting to look at her, and wanting to be close to her. He memorizes everything that she does, every minuscule movement and every tiny smile, how her hair bounces when she walks and how she chews her food. He dreams of her at night and daydreams about her during the day whether he's walking around in the hallways, sitting in class or flying with Ray in the Mancopter. And he wants to talk about her all the time (although that's something that he still has control over).

And he doesn't want to stop. He likes the warm feeling that he gets every time that he looks and thinks of her. And honestly, he figures that if he keeps looking, maybe he'll get a look, a longing stare, _any_ type of sign from her that can tell him whether she feels the same way.

Up until now, the results are inconclusive. The thing that's definite, is that his best friend is really distracting.

During this period of time, conversations with him in the Man Cave usually tend to go as follows:

"Kid?"

"Yeah?"

"You're staring again," comes the matter-a-fact answer.

Or

"Henry?"

"Huh?"

"You're pouring soda on the table again."

_And so on and so on. _

Then one week, playing ping-pong with Jasper turns into him getting hit right in the middle of the forehead with a ball, simply because he was too focused on Charlotte when she walked in from the storage room.

Henry groans and falls down onto his knees, holding his hands against his now aching forehead.

That's when he finally realizes that this staring thing has become a way bigger problem than he had anticipated. Definitely worse than before.

Schwoz has the audacity to point and laugh at him.

Schwoz also ends up crying out in pain because he gets shot in the face by multiple laser beams.

Henry doesn't feel sorry about that.

* * *

He likes listening to Char speak, likes the sound of her voice.

He likes it whenever he hears it in the school halls, in the Man Cave when he gets back from a mission, when they're in his living room studying, or when she calls him on the phone.

He likes it when it's bright and it bounces off of the walls within his living room, and when it's serious when she's debriefing them before a mission.

Or how confident it sounds when she speaks during debates, how high pitched it becomes when she's excited and starts squealing.

Or how it hitches when she's surprised.

Like so many things about Charlotte, her voice makes him happy.

* * *

He and Jasper are playing that game where one of them throws popcorn at the other and they try to see who can catch the most popcorn in their mouths, when Charlotte steps out of the elevator. He knows it's her because both Ray and Schwoz are in the Man Cave with them already.

Lately he's been feeling _euphoric_ every time he even remotely thinks about her. So even though he knows that staring's the main reason why he ends up embarrassing himself in front of her and multiple other people, he still tries to get a glimpse of her at any given moment throughout the day. Just so he can feel the rush of emotions that looking at her brings.

This time he feels…a lot of things.

She's wearing a blue crop top that compliments her skin beautifully. He also likes that the top presents him with that tiny sliver of skin at her stomach.

But the most important and the most aggravating part of her outfit are those shorts.

Because they're bearing _a lot_ of leg.

He gives her a once over, dragging his eyes from her sandal-clad feet, to her legs (_Gosh, her legs go on for days), _and over her waist, her torso, pauses at her lips before finally moving up.

when his eyes finally meet hers, he thinks that this is going to be the that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from following through with his urge to kiss her.

It's especially hard when she's looking at him like that: lips slightly parted and gaze dark and molten.

His body feels hot all over, and he's sure that he can hear the rush of blood inside his head.

It's Jasper that brakes the spell.

"Uh Henry, the popcorn."

Henry can't tell him how thankful he is for that. He manages to look away, feeling a bit dazed and it takes a few seconds before he resumes with what they've been doing.

When Charlotte walks past them a few seconds later, he gets a whiff of _that_ perfume and it makes him stop for a moment to take in the smell.

He groans.

_She's trying to drive him crazy._

He glares at Jasper and tries to hush him discretely when he chuckles.

It doesn't help, he starts snickering even more.

* * *

Henry walks into his living room one afternoon and finds himself facing a really heartwarming moment.

Charlotte's sitting on the couch, Jasper on the floor in front of her, and she putting curlers in his hair. She laughs as Piper says something funny and swats Jasper's hand away when he tries to figure out how many curlers she's already put into his hair .

She looks over at the entryway, shoots him a small smile before looking back at the strand of hair that she's currently rolling while also arguing with Jasper about which color the crop top that he's going to buy should be.

It's a cute sight. So cute, that he decides to take a picture of the moment before he walks over to them in order to help Jasper choose a crop top (It would take days otherwise).

And from then on, whenever he looks at the picture, he can't help but smile. And it makes him wonder whether he could have a moment like this with her in the future, where he will walk into their house and find her braiding their kids' hair.

Jasper was right.

He's really got it bad.

* * *

Her hugs are perfect.

He loves it when she hugs him when she's happy or when she's proud of him, when she's excited or sad.

He also loves how she seems to always know when he needs one.

One day he's exhausted and feels desolate after a mission. He's so tired having had to put himself through a lot of antics to get out of class in order to help Ray combat a large scale crime. He then had to run back to take an exam and then sneak out in order to fight crime again. It becomes one of those days when he feels as if he's reached the breaking point when it comes to balancing his actual life and his superhero life. And he feels helpless and unsure.

Charlotte seems to see it on his face the moment he steps out of the tubes. She looks concerned, and she stands up and walks towards him. She stands in front of him, not saying a word, one hand reaching out and taking hold of his wrist and she strokes her thumb over his forearm. Her eyes dart between his. He tries to smile in order to reassure her, and he just knows that he's failing miserably. He's thinking too much about, what to do, not disappointing Ray and having moments in his life in the future that will not be interrupted by a beeping sound. And those thoughts are brimming over, pouring out of his head and showing onto his face. He feels pretty close to crying, can feel the tears gathering, ready to fall.

After staring at him for a long moment, Charlotte gives a resolute nods. He doesn't know whether it's to him or to himself. But then she moves forward and her arms encircle his waist and he thinks that it must've been him. She leans her head against his chest, with her ear against his heart, and he hugs her back, closing his eyes when he rests his head atop of hers.

He doesn't know how long they stand there like that, holding each other. But when Ray makes a gagging noise behind them, he thinks that it must've been long enough. He looks over at his boss and friend, and he can see the concern on Ray's face, even as he tries to make light of the situation. Charlotte pulls away a bit, but her arms stay around him. She turns and looks at Ray, motioning for him to come over and join them.

Ray crosses his arms. "Uh, no," he says seriously. "I don't want to be part of your cutesy little hugging fest."

Jasper however, has no problem with the 'cutesy hugging fest', and Henry and Charlotte both laugh when he bounces over, taking the both of them into a big bear hug.

Jasper is also definitely a good hugger.

Schwoz joins them not soon after, taking a place at the other side of Henry and Charlotte, smiling contently when he hugs them. Then they all turn to look expectantly at Ray.

He sits there, glaring at them, and then he sighs and stands up, grumbling as he walks over to them.

The group opens up a bit so he can join them, and Henry sees him smile when they envelop him in their group hug. He catches Ray's eyes and smirks, and Ray just rolls his eyes before he smiles at him. The look he gives him almost seem like he's telling Henry "I'm proud of you" and Henry almost chokes on the lump in his throat. He smiles back and nods before laying his head back against Charlotte's. And so five people find themselves standing in the middle of the Man-cave, hugging each-other, humming in content, and laughing when they realize how ridiculous this must look. Then Ray yells "get back to work, you weirdos!" (but everyone can see him smiling fondly) and they start pulling apart.

And Charlotte looks up at him and smiles that bright shiny smile that tells him that everything is going to be okay.

And suddenly it feels as if everything is alright in the world.

* * *

He thinks that by now, he's gotten used to how beautiful she is and how pretty she looks. Enough so that his staring has gone down to a minimum, now being only a few (longing) gazes per day.

His feelings on the other hand have intensified.

Sometimes he feels at peace with the thought of…having a crush (loving) her. At other times, his emotions are all-consuming and he finds himself wishing that she was next to him. He starts smiling in the middle of fights simply because his thoughts drifted towards her and finds himself looking even more at the pictures that he has of them. There's no erratic thumping of his heart or sweaty palms anymore, but now there's the feeling of warmth that spreads through him, the inescapable need to hold her close and never let go, and the conviction to make sure that she's always.

More and more, he tries to compliment her to see her smile, brushes his hand against hers, takes her hand in his, stands closer to her than strictly necessary. Anything to fulfill those needs.

Aside from that, he's now more in control of himself when it comes to the whole staring thing.

Or so he _tells_ himself.

_But it's a fudging LIE. _

Because when he walks through the school doors on Monday morning, his breath hitches. He's absolutely forgotten about the phone in his hands and his interest in whatever Mary and Trent had been talking about on the morning news.

She looks _breathtaking_.

Red lips, white shirt, jeans that are hugging her perfectly, her Doc Martens and a leather jacket. Her hair is down, curls framing her face so beautifully and all he can do is stare.

She turns around to talk to Jasper, and his eyes drop down.

He wants to be respectful, he really does. She's his best friend and he shouldn't be staring at- This is disrespectful towards her and yes, her butt looks perfect and

He doesn't realize that Oliver is lying on the floor (_Why is Oliver lying on the floor?_). Henry's feet collide with Oliver's body, he hears a groan, and then suddenly he's falling.

He swears that it all happens in slow motion.

He falls down with a thump, his phone is sent flying to the other end of the hall.

He's sure as heck glad that he's not wearing his glasses today.

His legs are partially on top of Oliver's body, so he rolls over until he's on his back, taking his feet away from the groaning person on the floor. A few beats after that, Charlotte and Jasper appear in his line of vision, looking down at him, one concerned and one vaguely concerned but grinning.

"You okay, Hen?" Charlotte asks. And all he can do is nod. Because

_She looks so good. _

Sydney runs towards Oliver, yelling at him about being on the floor and being dramatic.

Henry (and probably everyone else) ignores it. The two of them having arguments has become such a normal part of their lives.

Jasper holds out a hand for him, which he gratefully takes.

"How can you not notice a entire person on the ground?" Charlotte asks exasperatedly when he's up on his feet again. She frets around a bit, trying to see whether he's hurt.

"Yeah, Hen. How?" his other best friend asks. And with the way that he's grinning, Henry really, really feels like zapping him at the moment.

"I wasn't," he runs a hand through his hair, feeling his ears starting to tint red, "I- Well why was there a person lying on the floor anyways! Shouldn't we be asking ourselves that?" he yells out, feeling flustered.

"So you just didn't see anything?" Charlotte asks dubiously.

"Oh, he saw something alright," Jasper murmurs.

Sadly both of them hear him.

Both of Charlotte's eyebrows fly up as she looks first at Jasper, and then at Henry.

He doesn't know what to do, but he doesn't have to.

The bell rings.

"Hey, would you look at that! The bell! Well got to go! Nice talk guys!" he yells out, and immediately hurries away to class.

He's pretty sure now that life hates him.

* * *

One day, someone actually brings it up.

That someone is _of course_, Ray.

And _of course_ he brings it up during a most inopportune moment, which is during their bi-weekly laser tag training day.

"So," Ray says as he slides from one end of the Man Cave to another in order to avoid the painful lasers being shot at them. "Charlotte, huh?"

Jasper chuckles even as he keeps controlling the rotating ball which is currently shooting said lasers towards them.

Henry would have glared at him if he wasn't so focused on the lasers himself. He ducks and rolls away from a beam that's shot his way. "What about Charlotte?"

He sees Ray shoot him an unimpressed look as the both of them run in different directions.

"Oh, you know," Ray drawls annoyingly. Teasingly. "_You like heeer_."

Again, annoying. He's being totally annoying.

Which is exactly why Henry laughs when a beam manages to hit Ray in the chest.

"Ow! I'm okay!"

Henry runs and ducks, then swats away a few lasers with the metal disc on his hand. It's quiet for a moment and Henry's glad that they've decided to drop the subject.

"So?" Ray asks.

_Never mind__. _

Henry groans, "I don't-"

"Lies!" Ray yells, standing still and glaring at him. At least three lasers hit him at that moment and he turns to glare at Jasper, who only shrugs and continues as if nothing happened.

"You keep making googly eyes at her," Ray continues after a beat. "Always staring at her, not listening to me!".

"Hugging her all the time," Jasper adds.

"She smiles and it's like you lose all your brain cells."

"She _exists_ and you lose all your brain cells."

"Always looking at her like," Ray clasps his hands together and puts them in front of his chest, leaning to the side and fluttering his eyelashes as he speaks in a high-pitched voice,"Oh, Charlotte, I want to kiss you," and he starts making smooching sounds. A few lasers hit him not long after.

"Which was probably what you were thinking about that day that she was wearing that lipstick," Jasper finishes, still uncaring about Ray's yelps of pain.

Schwoz walks in at that exact moment. "What are you talking about? You need lipstick, because I have lipstick if you need it." He sleepily drawls out, scratching his pajama clad butt as he goes to the snack machine.

"No, we don't-Why do you-" Ray splutters in between dodging, running and swatting.

"Because-"

"I don't care! I- None of us care and none of us need lipstick, Schwoz!" Ray yells in annoyance.

"At the moment," Jasper adds. "None of us need lipstick _at the moment_."

Ray sighs, "Okay, none of us need lipstick at the moment. Happy?"

Jasper's answer is a row of beams shot in Ray's direction.

A lot of them hit him.

"Ouch! Gah! No Schwoz, we were talking about Henry's little crush on Charlotte and how he stared at her that time when she was wearing lipstick."

"Oh."

Schwoz barely seems to care, too engrossed in his plate of nachos.

Ray rolls his eyes before turning to Henry. "You need to do something about it."

Henry stops, and when Jasper shoot a ton of lasers his way he dodges them all with his hyper motility.

"Okay stop!" he yells.

Jasper's hands immediately leave the console and he leans against it. Ray takes the opportunity to walk towards him and the both of them look at Henry.

"Look, one: I don't have a crush on Char. She's my friend. Best friend. That's all. And two: Even if I did-"

"Which you do," Jasper says.

"_If_ I did," Henry continues, "I wouldn't do anything about it because she probably doesn't like me back. Again _if_."

"Why do you think she _doesn't_ like you back?" Jasper asks. By the way that they're all staring at him (well, Schwoz is staring at his nachos. What is with him and food?), Henry can tell that no one believes that he doesn't like her. He wonders -not for the first time- why he tries so hard to hide his feelings from himself and his friends.

He sighs, "Why would she? Char is…" he tries to find the correct word, "Amazing. In every single way," he finally says, that being the best description that he could come up with..

"Okay, that's true but…what does that have to do with her not liking you?" Ray says, confused, and serious.

"I just," Henry sighs again. He doesn't actually want to talk about this, but these are his friends. And honestly, not talking about it and hoping that his feelings will go away (and he knows that _that_ sure as heck won't happen), doesn't help with anything.

"She's great-"

"Yeah we got that part."

"And I'm…not. "

Henry stares at his feet as the silence envelops them.

"But…you are though?" Jasper says, and he sounds so serious that Henry looks up at him. "I mean, you continuously save people-"

"That's my job."

"And you're there for her all the time. You're there for _us_ all the time. You're dependable, a good friend, nice to people. And she's told you all of that before."

Henry shrugs.

"You always try to make her smile, you buy her those really expensive hair products just because," Jasper continues.

"Those are material stuff. I shouldn't only be able to give her material stuff," Henry mutters in frustration.

"Maybe you can take her to space on my new space shuttle." Schwoz says.

_Even though they all admire Schwoz's intelligence, Henry sometimes wonders about the inner workings of his brain and how it works on things that are not related to science. _

"Again. Not material stuff."

"Are you ignoring the bits about being a good friend and being there for her on purpose?" Jasper asks at the same time that Ray says, "You compliment her all the time. You don't even compliment _me _that much, and I'm great."

Another shrug.

There's another moment of silence before Jasper speaks up again, "What about you do you think that she won't or doesn't like?"

Henry shrugs, doesn't say anything and then, deciding that it's better to get everything out, starts up again, "I'm not as smart-"

"That's such bull-crap, Hen. You _are_ smart," Jasper says, sounding slightly annoyed. "And even if you're not as smart as Charlotte, do I have to remind that most of us aren't according to Miss Shapen."

Henry shakes his head. "I once juggled two girls. I couldn't even choose between them. What if she thinks that it's going to be like that when it comes to her too? That one day, I'll like someone else and…"

He doesn't even bother finishing the sentence.

"You were young. You made mistakes, you learned. You're not acting like a fu-,uhm, that type of person anymore. All you need to do is show her that your feelings are genuine," Jasper finishes.

Ray nods at his side.

"And if that doesn't work and she still thinks that you're a terrible person, you can always use the shuttle," Schwoz adds happily.

"Schwoz!" Ray yells, and then, for good measure, zaps him with the his watch.

Henry chuckles. "Okay, we'll see. I don't know. I'm pretty sure she doesn't like me back."

"Oh shut up, kid. She stares at you as much as you stare at her. Or, well, maybe not as much as you but she _does_ stare at you a lot. You're both gung-ho-"

No one says that," Jasper mutters.

"-about each other."

"Yeah, sure" Henry says, but immediately shuts up when the alarm for the tubes starts beeping. Within a second, Charlotte is there with them.

"Hi!" she greets. And then she takes note of how they're standing around, not doing anything. "What's going on?"

"Oh," Schwoz answers, waving his hands around uncaringingly. "We were just talking about Henry's -"

Never before in his life, had Henry been this happy to have his hyper-motility.

He quickly shoots a round of lasers from his watch towards Schwoz face. Ray does the same thing at the exact same time.

And because Schwoz was trying to lick cheese from one of his nachos, the beams end up hitting his tongue. He falls over on the floor, covering his mouth and yelling in pain. He takes the plate of nachos down with him and it falls on his head, cheese and nachos sliding down his head and face.

Ray and Jasper start laughing, falling down and rolling around, holding their stomachs.

Charlotte stares at them for a moment, before looking at Henry. "We don't get paid enough for this."

"No. No, we don't," he answers."

Thankfully though, a crisis had been avoided.

* * *

During the days after that incident, Henry tries to think about how he's going to talk to Charlotte about, well, _this_.

The _feelings_.

He can't come up with anything, because all he can think about is rejection and everything becoming awkward between them after that and losing one of his best friends and that drives him crazy.

He finds himself thinking about it at the most inopportune moments though, like in the man-van when they're going to fight crime.

Which makes him sulky and (according to Ray) pouty, even when they meet up with a villain.

Or in this case, villains.

They're surrounded by The Toddler, Dr. Minyak, Jeff (why?), Drill finger and more than a handful of goons.

And Henry Couldn't. Care. Less.

He busts into the warehouse with Captain Man, doesn't say anything heroic, doesn't even try to rhyme or finish Ray's sentences, and he looks apathetically at the villains as they start talking. It stays like that throughout the usual banter and the villains' monologue about defeating Captain Man and Kid Danger. However, it's not long before someone gets annoyed and clearly exasperated with his detached attitude.

"Okay, what's wrong with him?" Dr. Minyak asks as he motions at him. "He's _pouting_."

He says the word like it's a disease.

"Women problems," Ray, well, Captain Man says casually, as if he's talking to a friend and not a villain.

"Ah! Well, not everyone can be as good with women as some of us," Dr. Minyak says, posing with grandeur, obviously referring to himself.

Henry rolls his eyes. "Doesn't Nurse Cohort have a crush on Captain Man?"

He's met with silence. '

What follows then can only be defined as... some type of breakdown.

Dr. Minyak's face suddenly turns red, bloats up in anger and he sputters some incoherent things to no one in particular. Then after a bit, he just stops, takes a deep breath and then finally exhales.

Slowly.

"No, she doesn't," he says in a strained voice after all of that is over.

"But didn't she tell you-" Ray starts to say, only to jump away when Dr. Minyak shoots him with his freeze ray.

The Toddler cackles as Captain Man almost falls into the toxic diaper trap that he's set up.

Dr. Minyak turns to him, looking serious, all evidence of frustration gone. "What exactly _is_ the problem?"

"Nothing," Henry mutters. "Can we please just get to the fighting part of this? Don't you guys have some kind of elaborate plan that you want to tell us about?"

"Yeah..." The Toddler answers. "But it's not fun when _you're_ not into it."

Dr. Minyak, Drill finger and the goons nod.

Jeff takes the momentary distraction to run and attack Captain Man from the back, screeching out a battle cry. Ray raises a fist and hits him right in the face. He falls down with a grunt and Henry zaps him unconscious before he can get up.

"So?" Drill finger asks as if nothing happened.

"Dudes, let's just fight so I can-"

The Toddler stomps his foot down. "No! We want to hear it."

Henry rolls his eyes and is about to snap back, but-

"Captain Man, Kid Danger. The hour of defeat is upon-"

"Put a sock in it, Time Jerker! Kid Danger was just about to tell us about his women problems," Dr. Minyak says.

"Women problems? I know all about women."

When he receives only blank stares in return, Time Jerker shrugs. "Okay, nothing about women. But we can help. I mean, it's not fun when someone isn't into the fight, you know?"

The villains nod again.

Captain Man and Kid Danger only stare.

"So, what's the deal?" Time Jerker adds.

"He thinks that the girl doesn't like him back," Ray says as he casually leans against a crate in the warehouse.

_What the heck is this?_

"Isn't he super popular? He has good teeth," Drill-finger queries as he looks from Kid Danger to Captain Man.

Dr. Minyak hums. "Maybe his alter-ego is a loser."

"I'm not-"

"Maybe he has a terrible personality," Time Jerker says thoughtfully.

"No, he has a great personality," Ray retorts easily.

The villains glance at one another and let out thoughtful hums.

_Seriously, what the heck is this?_

"Have you tried giving her gems?" a goon asks. The others look up in interest, as if that's the best idea that they've heard before.

"Where would I even find gems?"

"At the Swellview Museum of Stools and Jewels, of course," the goon answers easily.

"You mean steal them." It's not even a question. Henry just-

"Yeah! It's easy."

"I'm a hero, I can't steal-"

"We can help you," Time Jerker says, gleefully clasping his hands together. "We know this girl, uhm, Heather? She can-"

"She's in jail," Ray interrupts.

"Oh, bummer."

"We'll break her out," The Toddler says casually.

Henry looks on incredulously. "I don't want jewels, though?"

"But they're not for you. They're for the girl, you idiot," Dr. Minyak says. He turns to look at Captain Man. "Is he usually this dense? No wonder the girl doesn't like him."

"Hey!"

"Yeah, he's not always the smartest grape in the bunch," Ray answers with a teasing smirk in Henry's direction. "When it comes to girls that is."

Henry glares. "Shut up, dude. I hope you age terribly."

His quip only gets him a hearty chuckle from Ray.

"Girls like jewels, so you can't go wrong," a goon says.

"And guys, Larry. Guys like jewels too," another one adds.

Larry nods, "Yeah, sorry. I mean girls and guys alike like jewels."

"She wouldn't want something that's stolen," Henry says.

_Why is he even having this conversation?_

"Then don't tell her that they're stolen," comes the simple reply from all the villains, who are now looking at him like he's an idiot.

He can feel a headache coming on, and lets out a sigh, "Look, I-" he sighs again. "I promise that I'll handle it and the next time you'll see me, I'll be really into fighting all of you, okay?"

A moment of silence. An unspoken conversation takes place between the villains and goons, an then they all nod, "Okay."

"Okay, well then." He rapidly picks up his stun gun and shoots them all in the chest. Ray immediately runs over and takes the freeze ray from Dr. Minyak and freezes them in place.

"Well, that didn't work out as we had planned," Drill finger says as he squirms, trying to get out of the ice surrounding him.

"Yeah, well. I'm pretty happy that you guys tried to help me, if that helps," Henry mutters.

"That doesn't help at all!" Dr. Minyak yells indignantly.

Henry shrugs and smiles at Ray. At least he's in a better mood now.

* * *

Huh.

She _does_ stare.

He doesn't know _why_, but he knows that she tends to stare at him too.

It happens during specific moments.

When he's working out, he turns around and finds her looking at him. When he's talking he sometimes catches her staring at his lips before quickly moving her eyes back to his (the first time he thought that there was sauce on his chin or something).

And suddenly he feels hopeful.

Maybe Jasper and Ray _weren't _wrong. Maybe he _does_ have a chance.

He sometimes relishes in it. In the fact that she at least finds him physically attractive.

For instance, after the day that he managed to make her speechless simply by wearing his glasses, he had made sure that he was in her line of vision a lot, just to see her reaction, even if it meant going out of his way to do so because they didn't have the same classes.

And sometimes he would smirk at her, letting her know that he knows that she's staring. But even when he's acting cool, he can feel his heart in his throat. He feels excited because she might be interested, but at the same time he feels scared because what if she finds more flaws then good qualities when she looks at him.

That thought is always the first and foremost in his mind, and it always manages to convince him that she's definitely not interested and that he shouldn't even try to broach the subject of his feelings with her.

And he follows through with that thought.

That is, until something interesting happens, which becomes the tipping point of _everything _because he keeps thinking back to it and wanting that and more_. _

He's in his room reading a comic book because this is the one night during a weekend when, for over two hours, his watch hasn't beeped.

He's about to get some snacks downstairs when he hears a thump behind him. He turns around to find Charlotte standing near his window, a white bag with the 'yotally toghurt' logo in her hands. He's about to greet her, but then he sees _how_ she's looking at him.

And that's when he realizes that he's only wearing sweatpants...and nothing else.

He _wants_ to get a shirt, but the way she's looking at him, all dark eyes and…hungry.

That manages to keep him on the spot, unmoving.

He relishes in the way her eyes trace his shoulders, his arms, pausing at his pecs, mouth slightly agape, before moving lower.

Is she seriously going to-

And then her eyes fly up when she apparently realizes what she's doing. She yells a 'sorry!', followed by a long, stuttered out explanation that ends with her telling him that she's brought him something from yotally toghurt.

And all he can do is stare at her. And not for the first time, he thinks about walking over, pulling her close and kissing her.

_Impulse control, impulse control, impulse control. _

He looks down, closes his eyes, trying to think about _anything_ but her in order to calm down.

_His parents making out, that terrible Captain Man and Kid Danger cartoon that they watched, Jasper in Miss Shapen's booby blouse, _

Ah, that one does it.

He looks back up at her. "Thanks. I'll just put on a shirt first," he says. "If that's okay with you, of course?" he adds teasingly.

Her eyes widen and-

_Is she actually thinking about it?_

Not that he would mind.

If it's shirtless Henry that Charlotte wants, it's shirtless Henry that Charlotte will get.

Especially if it means that she would keep looking at him like he's something- _someone,_ that she wants.

_But for his own sake, he decides to turn around and put a shirt on. _

_He doesn't know why she gasps when he turns around. But just in case it's about his back or something (he's heard people say that that's a thing that they like), he takes his sweet time putting on his shirt, hoping that she's enjoying the show. _

* * *

She's beautiful.

Gorgeous.

From her skin, to her hair. Her eyes that hold so much fire.

Her lips. Her legs.

Her cute facial expressions, her radiant smile, her beautiful laugh.

Her tiny stature and small hands.

Her bouncing curls.

She's gorgeous, breathtaking, _mesmerizing_.

The more time he spends within her presence, the more he feels as if he's being suffocated by his feelings for her. He can't get much air into his lungs, no matter how much his heart keeps _thump, thump, thumping_.

It makes him feel dazed, but at the same time he feels laser sharp, super focused.

On her.

On everything that she does, every movement that she makes, every little touch and every linger and softening of her eyes.

And it's not only the physical things that attract him.

No.

It's Charlotte as a whole.

Don't get him wrong, he appreciates the physical parts too.

Everything, inside and out, is magnetizing, distracting, enticing.

Everything about her is beautiful. She's an angel, she's pure magic.

But it's the little things that count.

Like her intelligence and compassion and how her personality draws you in like a moth to the flame.

How she's there for him no matter what.

How she would take time out of her day to help anyone who is in need of some assistance.

The sound of her voice.

How she sometimes randomly brings everyone in the Man Cave things that they like.

Her wit.

Her love for bad TV shows.

How she cries during romantic movies or during nature documentaries when animals die or get separated from their families.

How happy she gets when Schwoz decides to teach her something new and they end up creating gadgets together.

Her determination.

Her skills as a tech, both outside and inside the Man Cave.

How she geeks out when she's talking about one of her clubs.

How determined she is about everything that she does.

Her passion for the things that she does. Her love for her family.

Her affection towards him and Jasper.

Her sass.

How she gives him advice, and supports him when he wants to change, to be a better person.

How she will speak up and speak her mind but always takes people's point of view into consideration.

How she turns all shy when he compliments her.

Her perfect hugs.

How she's such a good and supportive friend to Piper.

Her perfect teeth.

How she kisses his forehead when she's proud of him or when she can see that he's tired.

How her laugh is able to light up his day.

And how she just makes him _happy_.

These are the things that sometimes makes him smile when he's not even around her.

These are the things that make his heart skip a beat.

And these are the things that makes him crave her even more.

And yeah, he's admitted to himself that he loves her. That he's in love with her.

But he still feels somewhat…undeserving.

Because she seems too good for him (Something that Jasper had repeatedly told him not to say).

But he also wants to take a chance.

Because lately-

Lately he's been thinking that there's a tiny chance that she might like him back.

Because he's realized that she's been wearing _that _perfume more than usual.

Her eyes are always searching, tender and soft around him. Almost longing, an emotion that he himself is well-acquainted with.

And in all honesty, he doesn't even know how he had resisted doing anything about these feelings for so long.

It's a miracle that he's made it this far with only (only?) a few missteps here and there.

But he feels as if the tiny amount of control that he has, is crumbling down, along with his insecurities (stupid insecurities according to Ray and Jasper).

And he feels that soon enough, he's gonna take a chance.

* * *

Charlotte kissing him is just-

_Mind-blowing_.

In all honesty, he's the one who initiates it.

He knew he wouldn't last long with that whole 'control' thing. So of course he doesn't even try to stop himself when he thinks about kissing her.

They're sitting on his couch.

Charlotte is telling him about Kris and Maria and their antics in LIMP today.

His arm is laying across her shoulders and she's _so_ close. They're practically pressed against one another.

She's wearing that perfume again and her hair also has a particularly sweet smell today.

It's, of course, mesmerizing.

To smell that scent, see her lips move, listen to her voice as she speaks.

He stares at her, taking her in.

She's so beautiful.

And _gosh_.

He's _itching_ to kiss her.

The thought of doing just that, of pulling her onto his lap and kissing her, makes his whole mouth dry.

And in an effort to cure that, he licks his lips and oh.

Oh.

The way Charlotte stutters, comes to a stop and just stares at his lips is just so-

He lets out a groan and her eyes shoot back to his. Dark and longing and

_Maybe he doesn't only have a tiny chance._

His heart is thumping so loudly that he bets that she can also hear it.

Her own breathing has clearly picked up as well and all he wants, all he wants to do is-

"Char?"

His own voice sounds like gravel to his ears. The way she's looking at him is affecting him to the point of intoxication.

"Hmm?" is her simple answer, her eyes dart to his mouth and back again.

She licks her lips.

And this time, he's the one who looks down to follow the movement. And he keeps staring, for what seems like an eternity, as he debates whether he should ask her. The idea, the thought alone, makes him-

He bites his lip, trying to hold in another groan.

She squirms under his gaze, looking expectant and hopeful. And that's all it takes for him to take a chance, for him to ask

"Can I kiss you?"

Her assent is immediate. And he feels as if the words are barely out of her mouth before he descends, desperate to close the gap.

He can't even bring himself to care about the fact that he looks desperate because he's been waiting and hoping and dreaming about this for _a while_.

He starts off slow, not wanting to scare her.

But his mind tells him that this is _good_, and all he's wanted and he wants her closer. Her hands are on his chest, almost like she's feeling him up and he deepens the kiss.

She immediately responds in like.

He groans, arms going around her waist, pulling her closer and he can't help but bite her lower lip, loving the tiny mewl that she lets out.

And his mind keeps reeling at the fact that he's kissing Charlotte.

His best friend Charlotte.

The person he's been thinking and dreaming and fantasizing about. The person that he had wanted to have this close for a very long time, and that thought makes him kiss her even more intensely.

By the time they pull away from one another, he moves towards her neck, nuzzling her there, taking in her fragrance and kissing her.

Her hands fall onto his arms, caressing them, and he smiles against her neck.

"You have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that," he murmurs, and he gives her neck another kiss.

Although he could stay there forever, he pulls back in order to look at her. He takes one of the curls framing her face and tucks it behind her ear. Then he brings up his hands to cup her face, leans in again and gives her a chaste kiss on the lips.

He's done trying to resist her. And she seems happy with that fact.

She shudders under his hands and he smiles into the kiss before breaking away, keeping his hands on her face, feeling happy simply for being able to touch her like this.

"Not as long as me, that's for sure," Charlotte says, and that smile is so bright that he finds himself answering her in like before smirking when something hits him.

"Yeah, I noticed," He says casually, looking her in the eyes, biting his lips when her expression turns into mortification.

So _cute_.

"I mean you couldn't stop looking at my lips," he says, trying to sound casual and matter-a-fact, trying not to smile, " Actually, you couldn't stop looking at _me_. Don't think I haven't noticed."

She gasps, horrified, "What? No! I-"

He chuckles again, because she honestly has nothing to be mortified about. He was definitely worse. He sniffed her for goodness sakes. He's thought about _things_, even when Ray was standing right next to him. He got flipped over onto his back simply because of a look and a smirk. He liked being held down by her.

"Char, I had it worse then you," he says, recalling the day that Jasper had to pinch him so he would stop staring.

He caresses her cheek with his thumb.

_She's so beautiful. _

His eyes drop towards her lips, his thumb follows. He runs it back and forth against her bottom lip, staring, already feeling the need, the _craving_ to kiss her again.

"It didn't even matter what you were doing," he tells her, because it's the truth. "Talking, smiling, doing homework. And every time you wore those really short shorts."

And why would he say that.

It brings back that day into his head. Brings back the dreams and –

He closes his eyes, willing the image and the intense feeling away.

It doesn't really help.

When he opens his eyes, she's staring at him, eyes dark but still with a playful smile on her face.

"I bet I could guess how you were feeling," she says while patting him on his shoulder, "Kind of the same as when I saw you shirtless, probably."

_Ah, that day. _

He smirks. "Yeah, you liked that, huh?"

She swats him on the arm. "Oh, shut up."

And because he can, because he wants to tease, he goes for playful and alluring.

"Or what, Char?" he asks.

And the way she whispers '_Cheese and rice', the way she looks at him, gosh._

She's going to be the death of him.

"Or-" she says, voice wavering slightly.

"Uhuh?" He leans in closer.

"Or you won't get any more kisses."

But by the way she's looking at him right now, which actually still can't be worse than how _he's _looking at her, he can tell that she herself doesn't believe it. So he sticks to playful. He's so close to her now. Can smell that scent that is so Charlotte, can see the dark brown specks in her eyes, can feel her breath fanning against his face.

"Really," He states. It's not a question because he doesn't believe her, just like he wouldn't even have believed himself if he had said it.

She nods vigorously. "Yes!"

"I don't think you can hold it up," He says, and he stops moving forward, their lips almost touching as he speaks.

"Of course I can," she says in an indignant yet self-assured tone. And he almost laughs because that's one of the things he admires about her: her self-confidence.

"You'll be craving my kisses, Char. Do you really want to go through that when we've only just started kissing?"

"You're not that good, Henry."

But oh, he knows he's good. Knows it because she had made those noises back then when he kissed. Sounds that he'll be dreaming about.

He knows it as well as he knows that _she's_ a damn good kisser. Because he was _definitely_ affected when they had kissed.

He wonders how sensitive her neck will be. Maybe he should try and find out.

"Oh, I am. I'm pretty sure I'm...really good with my mouth,"

He feels like he's playing with fire by saying that. Not because of her reaction to those words, but his as well. It's like he want to make himself think and then dream about these things.

Charlotte rolls her eyes again, "You have such a huge ego."

"Because I know I'm _good_."

"You're not."

"Are you sure about that?"

And before she can answer, he moves towards her neck and latches on that spot between her neck and shoulder and sucks.

And gosh, he like the taste of her skin too.

When her hands move to his head, grabbing his hair and pulling at the strands he lets out a tiny groan, which becomes louder when she arches her back and her neck to give him better access.

_He could really get addicted to this. _

_He already is. _

He sucks harder and she moans so loudly that he pulls away, lest his parents hear them.

She looks dazed for a moment, but the minute her eyes find his and she sees his smirk, she looks embarrassed.

"So?" he asks her smugly. "Are you still sure?"

"That wasn't fair."

"I had to prove you wrong."

"Yeah, well, it was kind of worth it."

_Gosh, she's really going to be the death of him. _

"It was, wasn't it?" he murmurs.

"Yeah."

"Well, good. Cause I'm about to do that again."

"Yeah, okay," comes the breathy reply.

And he's happy.

Because he already couldn't wait to kiss her again. He's become addicted.

Not only to kissing her but also to having her so near and being his and him being hers and

"I love you, Charlotte," He whispers, looking into her eyes as he says so, hoping that she sees the sincerity of those words.

Because he really does love her and he doesn't want her to doubt it for a minute.

She looks surprised for a second, and then she gets that look, all tender eyes, and soft smile. And he gulps.

"I love you too, Henry," She says softly, looking him directly in the eyes.

His heart swells, he feels close to crying and laughing and he wants to hug her.

His grin almost splits his face in half.

And then she leans forward and kisses him, sucking on his bottom lip in a manner that makes his head spin. Then she moves down towards his neck, and sucks, in the same way that he did to her before.

When he groans, she moans back. His head falls onto the backrest for a moment, his eyes close.

Then, because his brain tells him _closer_ and _more_, he grabs her, pulling her onto his lap like he had wanted to, and when she's situated there, she continues. He really wishes that they could keep doing this forever.

Cause gosh, having the girl of your dreams feels _good_.

And when she pushes him back on the bed, holding his hands down as she kisses him, he feels all types of feelings and he can barely breathe.

He really _does _like powerful women.

* * *

Afterwards, they talk.

About his insecurities (She had reacted just as Jasper did), her insecurities, their feelings, their future. He asks her whether she will be his girlfriend.

She giggles and says, " Yes, of course".

It seems like the weirdest question considering they had spent about half an hour kissing on his bed just before.

They talk about embarrassing pre-relationship incidents and everything that comes to mind, until she has to go. He walks her home, holding her hand all the way there.

The next day, he wakes up feeling exhilarated.

When he picks her up from her house and takes her hand in his (her mom shot them a look that said "Well, about damn time"), it's as if everything falls into place.

And when they step out of the elevator and walk into the Man Cave, their fingers intertwined with one another, three pairs of eyes look over and three little smiles appear.

"Finally!" Ray yells, grinning as he looks between them.

And as he and Charlotte turn to look at each other, blushing and grinning at the same time, he thinks the same thing.

_Yeah, Finally_.

_The end._

* * *

A/N: And that's the end. Thank you so much for reading!

PS: Charlotte being in control was based on Henry's dream in I Dream of Danger.


End file.
